Main menu

You are here

Swann, William

by William S. Price, Jr., 1994

ca. 1685–ca. 1723

William Swann, legislator, was the eldest son of powerful Albemarle leader Samuel Swann and his first wife, Sarah Drummond, who had been the widow of North Carolina's early Proprietary governor, William Drummond. In all likelihood William Swann was born in Virginia at Swann's Point near Jamestown. In the fall of 1694 he entered North Carolina with his father; Sarah Drummond had died recently, and Samuel married Elizabeth Lillington, the daughter of a prominent Albemarle planter.

By 1709 Swann had entered North Carolina politics as a member of the lower house of the Assembly from Currituck Precinct. Two years later he was speaker of the house and spearheaded passage of punitive measures against the leaders of Cary's Rebellion, especially Thomas Cary and Edward Moseley. Swann also served in the assemblies of 1715/16 and 1722. He was a vestryman and militia colonel for Currituck in 1715.

After 1722 Swann does not appear in the extant records of North Carolina. It seems likely that he died (probably intestate) around 1723.

Comments

Oops - I apologize - in my first email I even got the names/sequence mixed up. It gets very confusing with a Sarah Drummonds widow of Governor and a daughter as well the number of Samuel Swanns in this lineage. I wonder if you can tell me how you verified that Sarah Drummond, the widow of Governor Drummond, married Samuel Swann and is the mother of William Swann. As I read Samuel Swann's will and other documents I have not been able to establish that link. I can establish the link with Gov. Drummonds daughter marriage to Samuel Swann here and in other documents. Thank you for any help you can provide. Suzette Frederick

Thank you for taking the time to submit a question to NCpedia. This article is reprinted with permission from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, published through UNC Press. As such, I’m afraid we do not have the contact information for the author, William S. Price, Jr.

However, I have connected you via email to Reference Services at the NC Government & Heritage Library on this email. Contact information for them may be found at http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/contact.html. Someone there may be able to help you with your research.